Culture is only true when implicitly critical, and the mind which forgets this revenges itself in the critics it breeds. Criticism is an indispensable element of culture.
—Theodor W. Adorno (1903–69) German Philosopher, Composer
It is strange that we do not temper our resentment of criticism with a thought for our many faults which have escaped us.
—Indian Proverb
The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
A critic is a legless man who teaches running.
—Channing Pollock (1880–1946) American Playwright, Critic
No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
The pleasure of criticism takes from us that of being deeply moved by very beautiful things.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an air hole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather than its defects.—The passions of men have made it malignant, as the bad heart of Procrustes turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
It is usually best to be generous with praise, but cautious with criticism.
—Unknown
Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
We are suffering from too much sarcasm.
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American Poet
Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on. The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
The rule in carving holds good as to criticism; never cut with a knife what you can cut with a spoon.
—Charles Buxton (1823–71) British Politician, Writer
Any coward can sit at home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in a fog. But I would rather by far die on a mountainside than in bed.
—Charles Lindbergh (1902–74) American Aviator, Inventor, Conservationist
They condemn what they do not understand.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book by implying that the book is completely unimportant without saying exactly why, and carefully avoiding any clear images that could capture the reader’s full attention.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
Now, in reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
It is impossible to think of a man of any actual force and originality, universally recognized as having those qualities, who spent his whole life appraising and describing the work of other men.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Don’t mind criticism. If it is untrue, disregard it; if unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant, smile; if it is justified it is not criticism, learn from it.
—Unknown
If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn’t make your house look any better.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you’re cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
He whose first emotion, on the view of an excellent work, is to undervalue or depreciate it, will never have one of his own to show.
—John Aikin (1747–1822) British Doctor, Writer
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
—Franklin P. Jones
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